Where High Gets Low.
OMFG, yes: lobster swimsuits by Mary Ann DeWeese, on view at LACMA as part of the California Design show.
The Avanti, designed in 1961 by Raymond Loewy. I would wear my lobster swimsuit while I drove this around.
A pamphlet advertising the City of Lakewood — L.A.’s first planned community. Speaking of which, if you haven’t read D.J. Waldie’s Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir, then get on it. He covers this very subject.
A graffiti/street art tribute to historian and Museum of Modern Art director Alfred Barr, by Daniel Feral. See it in the old Donnell Library windows across from MoMA, as part of the exhibit Pantheon, starting this Saturday.
Yup, this belongs to a museum.
The L.A. Times is reporting that the Museum of Contemporary Art in L.A. is in the process of working on a new logo. (You can find the old one here.) In his item, Christopher Knight describes the new design as a “post-Bauhaus/neo-Minimalist affair.” But, I gotta confess. The only thing that comes to mind when I see this is “toy company.” In fact, all of a sudden, I’m experiencing an unrequited yearning for a King Kong Barbie and a Snowtrooper Battle Pack. Perhaps the museum is considering revenue streams I hadn’t considered?
[Update, because I'm a crackhead: This isn't a new logo. It's a logo that was designed for the museum 30 years ago that they appear to have dusted off and used on a press release. Boy, did I just majorly blow it, or what?]
After the jump, a few comparisons to the logo I thought was new, but isn’t really. Sheesh.
Oh Those Sleeves! A 1969 evening dress by Madame Alix Grès, made from taupe silk paper taffeta. (Photos by C-M.)
I’m not someone who is known for her fashion sense (my entire closet is one long, jazz-like riff on jeans and sneakers). But that doesn’t mean I can’t drool over a beautifully-constructed frock when I see one. And the American High Style exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, dedicated to chronicling the museum’s costume holdings, offered plenty to salivate over: Christian Dior, Elsa Schiaparelli, Cristobal Balenciaga, to name but a few. Of particular interest is the extensive collection of pieces by master cutter Charles James (1906-1978), whose Diamond Evening Dress (shown after the jump), made for heiress/philanthropist Dominique De Menil, is truly a wonder to behold.
Overall, this show is a winner — beautifully and cleanly presented (unlike its sister show at the Met, which is supposed to be a hot mess). The only bummer is that the curators decided to pipe in a lite music soundtrack of operatic ahhhhhs that seem to have been taken from a Disney musical (from the part of the film where the princess wakes up). It not only made me grit my teeth, it made me want to commit random acts of violence on small animals. My advice: if you truly want to enjoy this exhibit: pack an iPod.
The show is up at the Brooklyn Museum through Aug. 1.
Continue reading ‘In Fashion: American High Style at the Brooklyn Museum.’
Let me pull out my digital chalkboard to explain: Glenn Beck recently showed images of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson rendered in an artistic style reminiscent of…
…the Obama/Hope poster…
…which was created by Shepard Fairey…
…who was influenced, artistically, by Constructivism…
…a movement that was born in Russia, just after the Revolution…
…which was led by Lenin, who once reportedly said, “a lie told often enough becomes the truth” — which makes Glenn Beck a…
…a card-carrying big-C Commie.
There you have it, folks. Now everybody run around like chickens with your heads cut off.
Image credits, top to bottom: Screengrab by C-M, Thomas Hawk, Strifu, Alki1, LLlyxep, Délirante bestiole, John McNab.
At the Harvard Graduate School of Design. (Photo by Hargo.)
Peter Schjeldahl reviews Shepard Fairey’s solo at the ICA in this week’s New Yorker, describing it as “strangely wholesome.” Read the full review here.
Robert De Niro is waiting… (Photo by C-Mon.)
Engorged with lots of holiday cheer (and too many empanadas), Celso and I decided to watch Michael Cimino’s 1978 Vietnam drama, The Deer Hunter. If you haven’t had a chance to see the picture, here’s what you need to know: it’s got lots of bleak footage of Pennsylvania mills, one loooong-ass wedding scene, oodles of Vietnamese jungle shots and more Russian roulette than a freaked-out Christopher Walken can handle.
My favorite visual comes towards the end of the movie. It’s a simple shot of Robert De Niro arriving at a veteran’s hospital, to visit a buddy who was maimed in the war. The moment is rather unremarkable. What got my attention, however, were the luscious colors of that ’70s wallpaper in the hallway, a saturated rainbow sherbet of hues such as tangerine and papaya. It’s as if De Niro (in full-blown intensity-mode) is emerging from a tropical womb. All I’d like to know is: Who was the set decorator for this? And can someone please give him a job decorating real hospitals? I’ve had it with all the beige.
Buy this and save $99,000,075 million
Want to “give your home an edgy look with some serious pizzazz?” Well, look no further. Because “lifestyle retailer” Z Gallerie has just the home design trinket for you: a bling-a-rrific metallic skull that bears an uncanny resemblance to Damien Hirst’s diamond-encrusted sculpture, For the Love of God — only this version is almost $100 million cheaper. The best part: gift wrap is only $4.25 (shipping not included). Which means that you can purchase this fine piece of home design for yourself and more than a hundred of your closest friends — and still not come close to reaching the original’s price tag (which is almost seven times the GDP of Tuvalu). Act now. Or until Lladro comes out with a $19.95 version of Jeff Koons’ Michael Jackson and Bubbles.
(Many thanks to Ryan Frank for the link.)
Update & Correction: Paddy Johnson over at AFC rightly points out that Hirst’s skull is now valued at £150 million (or about $263 million) — roughly the GDP of Micronesia.
Further Update: See what a pal of mine and I made with this fine piece of home décor merch.
(Photos by C-M. Click on images to supersize.)
Found this over the weekend: the Stephen Colbert desk calendar. Nothing wrong with the calendar. But what tech-happy incompetent mangled Colbert’s fingers, at left? Or was Colbert in some industrial accident that I don’t know anything about?
See a close-up here:
Spooky.
See additional Photoshop nightmares at Photoshop Disasters.
Posted by C-Monster.